Nora's Blog

Featured Post

2/3/15When asked in early 2014, 17.1 percent of high school seniors and 16.2 percent of 10th graders reported using e-cigarettes in the previous month. We are still wrestling with whether or not e-cigarettes pose a danger, but their popularity among youth combined with society’s past experiences with tobacco and other addictive substances demands that we urge caution around these products. Read More.

Recent Posts

noviembre del 2013December 1 is World AIDS Day. At NIDA, we always stress the principle that drug abuse treatment is AIDS prevention, because of the close links that exist between drug abuse and the spread of HIV. Injection drug use alone contributed to more than 7% of new infections in 2011, although the population of people who use drugs by any route who are also HIV-positive is much higher. Drug use goes hand-in-hand with various behaviors besides needle-sharing that place individuals at risk for HIV infection, such as unprotected sex. Read More.

noviembre del 2013Recently, I had the privilege of visiting Dharamsala, India, for a dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama about addiction science, as part of a five-day conference at his Mind and Life Institute. I was very impressed at the Tibetan Buddhist leader’s personal interest in the brain, and in his desire to convene a small group of scientists from around the world along with Buddhist contemplatives and other scholars to discuss the topic of craving, desire, and addiction. Read More.

noviembre del 2013Addiction goes hand in hand with other mental illnesses. People with psychiatric conditions smoke at twice to four times the rate of the general population, and they are estimated to purchase nearly half of all cigarettes sold in this country. Yet physicians have tended to ignore the smoking behavior of their psychiatric patients. Read More.

septiembre del 2013In tough fiscal times, scientists from a wide range fields worry that their area of research will be disproportionately hurt. As the Director of NIDA, my job is to ensure that we continue to support a balanced portfolio that makes the most of the scientific opportunities that are emerging and stands the best chance of improving the public’s health. Read More.

septiembre del 2013September is National Recovery Month—an annual recognition of the fact that millions of Americans suffer from addiction and other mental disorders, which can be successfully treated, allowing people to live healthy, rewarding lives. Read More.

agosto del 2013Current prevention strategies have reduced the incidence of HIV worldwide, but that decline has slowed in recent years. We need new prevention strategies if we are to realize President Obama’s goal of an AIDS-free generation. Read More.

agosto del 2013The epidemic of prescription opioid abuse in this country is linked partly to the dramatic rise in prescriptions for these medicines over the last two decades, as well as the fact that many clinicians are inadequately trained to safely treat pain in their patients. Read More.

julio del 2013In April of this year I visited Vietnam along with Jacques Normand, Director of NIDA’s HIV Research Program, to foster research collaborations between NIDA and Vietnamese scientists on issues of HIV and drug abuse in that country. Read More.